


Let Me Claw My Way To The Front and Be With Him

by VeteranKlaus



Series: Gunfire Sounds Like Home [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eudora Patch is Alive, M/M, PTSD, Vietnam War, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 12:58:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19020406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeteranKlaus/pseuds/VeteranKlaus
Summary: The apocalypse averted through the power of sibling love - or, realistically, Five refusing to accept Luther caging Vanya like a wild animal - everyone could let out a sigh of relief. There's still plenty of healing to be done for all of them, but they're on the right road.Now, it's been a busy few weeks. All of them have been trying to process what happened and are trying to be hopeful for the future, but Diego still feels utterly horrible, like the worlds worst brother, as he sits down in the sudden family meeting he called."Klaus," he states, looking at the four siblings in front of him, "hasn't been seen for almost a week."They search all his known spots: cheap motels, deep alleyways, old drug dens. In the end, they find him in a history book.Or, in which Klaus doesn't return from Vietnam.





	1. You Specialize in Dying

It turns out that the apocalypse could be averted by luck and the stubbornness of a fifty-eight year old man trapped in a thirteen year old body. 

Five had arrived upon Luther locking Vanya in that horrible cell in the basement, and despite even Allison not being able to get through to their brother, Five was not having it. He had argued ruthlessly with Number One, words cold and hurtful and nothing but the truth. He had jabbed his finger against Luther's chest, his jaw locked, shoulders high as he seethed with an anger so intense Diego felt intimidated. 

 _How dare you,_ he had hissed,  _how dare you look at our sister and use your last brain cell to think that this - this - is the right thing to do. You're just as dangerous as she is. Possibly more so, don't you think? Nothing's more dangerous than a man willing to lock his most vulnerable sister in a cage and confidently say it is the right thing to do. Should I be locked up, Number One? I've killed more people than you could ever imagine, and I didn't care. I did it all on purpose and never felt bad. Diego stabbed people as a child. Ben tore people apart. Allison's entire life is a lie. Klaus hasn't been sober in over a decade. You've strangled people to death. Reginald turned you into a monster. We're all worse than Vanya._

Luther had never looked so utterly hurt and ashamed before, Diego thinks, and Five had glared at him one last time before teleporting into the cage, grabbing Vanya, and teleporting to his bedroom. 

The apocalypse never happened after that. Five admitted, afterwards, that he believed it must have been Vanya who had been responsible for the apocalypse. He still seemed utterly dumbfounded by the idea that the end of all things could be avoided by simply caring about family. After everyone had cooled off, they had all had a big family meeting in which they discussed Vanya's powers, Reginald putting her onto medication, and the fact that now they had to help her learn to control her powers. They all owned up to some things and apologies were said all around, and for now, everyone seemed eager to try and work towards becoming a family again. It was awkward as all hell, sure; Luther avoided Vanya like the plague, Allison could only speak for short periods of time. They all pretended not to notice how Five's breath smelt like alcohol, and Diego tried to act normal. It was, quite simply, awkward and horrible, but they were slowly making the attempts to try and mend themselves and one another.

He thinks it's horrible how, despite all this family bonding time, it still takes Diego days to notice that a member of the family isn't there. Hasn't been there for a while, now.

Diego double checks the entire house and the bathroom, but there's not a single trace that Klaus has been in the house for days. When Diego thinks of the last time anyone had seen Klaus, it had been the day the house had gotten shot up by those two psychopaths looking for Five. Diego may know Klaus' horrible habits and his tendency to disappear at a moments notice, but Diego knows Klaus well enough to know he wouldn't simply disappear after danger. Klaus might have ran away and hid during the fight, but he would have come out and went to check on everyone before disappearing. He hadn't.

"Family meeting!" Diego hollers down the corridor, banging on bedroom doors mercilessly and stamping his feet just to prove his point. He's met with a chorus of groans and moans, but he only has to wait a couple of minutes before all of his siblings, save for the missing one, have sat down in the living room.

"What is it?" Allison asks, her voice still quiet and hoarse. Diego clears his throat, his stomach twisting. He dives right in.

"Klaus," he states, "hasn't been seen for almost a week."

Everyone seems to look around the room then, noticing that their loudest brother isn't there with them. 

"You know Klaus," dismisses Luther, "he always runs off. He's probably getting high." He sounds disgustingly disappointed in their brother, especially considering the fact that all of them are trying to act like a family together and he believes Klaus to simply be entertaining his drug addiction.

"He has a point," Five comments. "Klaus disappears a lot, Diego. He's probably fine."

Diego shakes his head. "He's got nowhere else to go, and even now Klaus hardly disappeared ran off after the funeral. He's been helping with the apocalypse as much as we all were," he points out. "If he ran off to get high, he would have come back by now because he's got nowhere else to sleep. Plus," his voice drops slightly and his fingers flex anxiously over his thighs, "the last time any of us saw him was when the house got shot up. That was a week ago."

Everyone shares a small look at that, but Luther still shakes his head.

"You think he got kidnapped?" Asks Vanya, her voice quiet and unsure. Diego inclines his head.

"Possibly." He turns to look at Five, raising his eyebrows. Five shrugs.

"It's not like I ever spoke to Hazel or Cha-Cha about him," he states, "I don't know. Look, he's probably fine, Diego. If you're that worried, go checkout his drug dens first."

Diego can't help but feel his gut twist in anxiety and dread. He just knows there's more to it than Klaus running off to get high again, but he understand why his siblings don't. Five sighs heavily.

"Check out his drug dens first, Diego. If you can't find him, I'll... I'll talk to Hazel. I'm pretty sure he's... 'retired' from the Commission now, anyway." 

It's as good as he'll get, and Diego nods in agreement. "I'll come," says Vanya, standing up. She glances around self consciously, hands poking out of her sleeves. "We should still make sure he's okay, even if he's just getting high."

Allison stands up. "Give me some addresses," she says, and Diego's lips curl up slightly. Luther hesitates a moment longer before nodding his head. 

"If you give me a few places to look, I will," he states. 

They spend the next ten minutes discussing the few places Klaus might have run off to: local motels Diego remembers paying for throughout their time out of the academy. They disperse and check out local known drug spots, parties, any alleys that seem the most sheltered. Vanya tags along with Diego.

"Do you think he's alright?" She asks him as they leave an empty alleyway. Diego runs a hand through his hair.

"I want to think so," he mutters. "Something... something tells me he's not. Klaus wouldn't disappear for so long with the apocalypse supposed to be happening, you know?"

Vanya nods her head. "He always tried to look out for you all after missions," she comments softly, and Diego nods.

"He did." 

"We'll check this last place," Vanya tells him, looking to the approaching motel, "and then we'll head back."

Diego nods and wills Klaus to be at this motel.

 

 

No one's seen Klaus, though. Not Allison, Five or Luther, not any of the police or drug dealers or pawn shop cashiers or DJs. No one's seen him since the shooting, and Diego feels dread thick in his stomach.

"Talk to Hazel," he demands of Five back in the academy. "Now."

Five waves a hand at him but nonetheless makes his way to the phone in the kitchen. "Calm down, Diego," he says, "throwing yourself into an anxiety attack over our drug addict brother isn't going to help anyway."

Diego shoots him a glare, his tongue running along his teeth in irritation. Urgency weighs down on his shoulders like weights, the knowledge that their brother, for all they know, could be dead. Especially if Hazel and Cha-Cha got to him, and the knowledge that none of them even noticed until they actively spoke about being a family. Even then, it took them days to notice their brother's absence. Part of Diego hopes he's not safe; at this rate, if Klaus really is just unconscious in an alleyway, he's going to kill him himself for making him worry so much.

Five rings Hazel and they all linger in the corridor.

"It's Five," he says into the phone, "I've got a question." He presses his lips together, leaning against the wall with one arm wrapped around his torso. He's yet to get some clothes other than the stupid academy uniform he's been wearing since his sudden appearance. "My brother, Klaus. He went missing after you and Cha-Cha shot us up. Know anything about that?" He pauses, rolls his eyes. "Yes, him. Where is he?" Slowly, his eyebrows raise, lips parting slightly before he narrows his eyes. "Oh," he murmurs, "no idea of the specifics? Alright. Thanks." He hangs the phone back up on the receiver and turns to his siblings, looking at Diego.

"They kidnapped him," he states casually, and Diego's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. "But they don't have him anymore. Hazel said he escaped and stole their briefcase on his way out, so it's safe to say that it's not a matter of _where_ Klaus is, but _when_."

"You mean, he time travelled?" Allison asks. Her voice is worse now after asking about for Klaus, quiet and raspy. Five tips his head into a nod. 

"It seems so. Considering he's not made his way back now, I'd guess he's stuck."

Diego runs his hands through his hair, taking a few steps back. "How do we get him back?" He asks, fingers scratching his jaw. He isn't sure how he feels now; Klaus got kidnapped and no one noticed. Klaus is stuck in some random time period; hell, what if he ended up in the same time period as Five, and he's stuck in the apocalypse that would-be.

Five presses his lips together. "We have to find him first," he states, "so we should start on that... let's go to the library. We can use the computers there and we'll simply search online. It's Klaus; he's probably done something enough to get his name somewhere. If he's done anything significant, it might have even made its way into newspapers or books. That's assuming he's in the past, anyway. It's… more complicated if he's in the future."

It's not promising. Not at all; for all they know, Klaus is in the 1500s, or he's gone and time travelled to prehistoric times. The internet and library won't help them then. However, it's all they have, so Diego swallows dryly and forces himself to nod. At the very least, everyone now seems more urgent to find him, now that they know he's not chasing after his drug addiction.

They pile into Diego's car. It's a tight fit, thanks to Luther, but they manage and Diego drives them to the library. Allison and Luther and Five take the books and he and Vanya go to the computers. The computers bring up the Umbrella Academy first; Klaus Hargreeves, Number Four, The Séance, a child born out of nowhere. It brings up old interviews they did as children and Diego can't help but watch one of them, throat dry as he sees them all as children standing outside of a bank. Ben's there, too, covered in blood and looking utterly miserable and awkward, and Diego blinks rapidly. Klaus is there, goofy grin on his lips as he leans onto a much more carefree Five. 

He goes onto the next google page, and then the next, and the next. 

In the end, though, it's Luther that finds him. 

He looks up from the table he's sitting at, a heavy book in his hands. His face is a little paler and he swallows. 

"Uh, guys? I've found him."

Diego doesn't bother logging out of the computer and he and Vanya hurry over to the table that's drowned in history books. Five had pushed two tables together to give them more space to lay out history books, and he's peering over Luther's shoulder, jaw locked.

"Where - when is he?" Vanya asks curiously, and Diego tries to get a look at the book in his hands. 

"He's in the 60s," mutters Five, and he pulls the book out of Luther's hands to lay it out on the table. His slender finger points at a grainy photo under a heading:  _THE 173rd AIRBORNE BRIGADE._

Klaus is there, sure enough. He's standing among a group of soldiers, wearing a similar uniform to them; pants tucked into his heavy, dusty army boots, and a ragged private jacket hangs off his slender shoulders. Dog tags hang from his neck and a helmet casts a shadow over his forehead. Despite the fact that there's an M16 rifle in one of his hands and there's a suspicious red stain on the hems of his jacket, he's smiling. He's looking right at the camera, right at them, one arm slung over a man with dirty blonde, near brown hair, waving his _hello_ hand over his shoulder, a gun in his other hand, a heavy kit bag on his back and an old, beaten down bus behind them.

_The 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam, 1968, arriving in the Central Highlands._

_Soldiers pictured (left to right): John Anderson, Richard Cooke, Harry Bairns, David Katz, Klaus Smith, William Campbell..._

Diego stops reading. "He's in fucking Vietnam," he states, and he feels faintly light headed. 

"It appears so," Five mutters in response, eying the picture. He flicks to the next page; there's another picture. It's more blurry, capturing a helicopter flying close to the ground as soldiers jump off. Klaus is there, shown in the black blur on his open hand as he jumps out of the chopper. The next page brings another photo. It isn't clear which one Klaus is, all the soldiers captured wading through deep rice fields as the sun beats down on them ruthlessly. There's another photo and Klaus is in a bar, dog tags hanging over a horrible yellow sweater vest, his cheeks pink as he throws an arm around the same soldier in the first photo, and he waves his  _hello_ hand at the camera. He has more tattoos; one peeking out on his bicep and from the bottom of his vest and the tail of an animal curling around his shoulder. There's a photo of him right at the camera, slightly blurred from motion. It's dark, camera messed with by the blazing fire in the background and the darkness of the night and shadows on Klaus' face. Dirt and blood streak down his cheeks as he turns away from the burning village, eyes wide. Diego might go as far to say as it almost looks like he's crying. He looks scared. 

Diego pulls his gaze away from the book and to Five. "We need to get him," he says, rushed. He doesn't want to look further in the book. What if the journalist or photographer with them had captured a photo of Klaus, slumped behind some sand bags, gun lost and blood around him? How did timelines work? Klaus must be experiencing the 60s now, then, or was he already in the 90s, alive and growing old. Or was he a ghost, watching them now. Would they go back and get him and these books would be altered to forget his death? 

Five presses his lips together. "I might... I might be able to jump and get him. He should have that briefcase so I shouldn't have to worry about getting back, unless he's lost or broken it in..." he waves a hand at the cover of the book. It's simply titled:  _The Vietnam War._

"Can you do that?" Vanya asks. "Last time you time travelled, Five..."

Five looks away. "I overworked myself then. This would be quick and definite. I... I can do it. Unless you want to wait for remembrance day to see if his name is on the list of dead soldiers, or if he'll show up with the briefcase in a few days?"

It's snappy and Diego glares at him, but he knows he's stressed. "How long do you think he's been there for?" He asks quietly, and Five shrugs.

"It could be a week for him, or it could be a year. We're not on the same timeline so what's a week for us isn't necessarily a week for him."

Diego doesn't want to think about that. Klaus, vulnerable, pacifist Klaus, thrown into a bloody war for months, years. Klaus, whom he considers his youngest sibling, having to shoot people and jump out of helicopters and dodge bullets and bombs.

"Get him. Do it, Five," Diego urges, digging his fingers into the table beneath him. "Now."

Five glares at him. "I can't just do it right now," he snaps back, "I need to calculate it. Alright? We've found him, he's fine. Give me the rest of tonight and I'll figure out the calculations to make sure I don't end up stuck there with him, alright? And then I'll go." 

"It's all we can do," Luther says, looking at Diego. He forces his shoulders down and he swallows dryly before nodding. 

"Let's go home, then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm only planning this to have, like, two or three chapters max, we'll see, but perhaps I'll put it into a series and expand it further if you all like the idea? Feel free to leave a kudos or a comment if you did like it, I appreciate anything!


	2. Go Humming Like a Prayer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Literally watched a documentary and raw footage from the real 173rd Airborne Brigade and war to write this, but I am not a soldier or a Vietnam vet or a historian, so all my knowledge comes from the internet; forgive me for any inconsistencies. Although, the Brigade never ended up in the A Shau Valley like in TUA, so reality is a lie and I can make up some soldier scenarios.
> 
> Also, time travel is a pain in the ass. Is Klaus alive and like, 80 years old and living somewhere else, or is he dead and been a ghost for fourty odd years, waiting to get to 2019 to see the Hargreeves in the library. Was he never born then, since he was alive/died before he was ever born, technically, or did he die and watch as a ghost as he was born and lived and time travelled again in a continuous loop? Does that mean Klaus is surrounded by tons of ghosts of himself because he continuously dies and is reborn and time travels back to Vietnam, only to die and then be a ghost and be reborn and time travel back, die, reborn, rinse and repeat? And at the same time as the siblings are looking at the photos, technically the same time as Klaus being dead/80, Klaus is 30 and living through Vietnam. The siblings are looking at photos taken that he might not have even taken yet for him. Are all these Klaus' existing at the same time? Is it an alternate universe for all of them? Technically, because of the difference in time, Klaus might have already experienced travelling to the future, but it's yet to happen for the Hargreeves.  
> Technically I don't need to think about any of this, of course, but still. I did.  
> I hate time travel. No wonder Five's bedroom walls are covered in equations. 
> 
> Anywho, enough rambling. Just putting it out there that I am not a soldier, veteran, historian, time traveler, quantum physicist, genius, etcetera etcetera. Enjoy!

In the academy, Five disappears immediately to his bedroom to go do his calculations. Everyone else heads to the living room, processing the information that Klaus is - was? - in a war. They're quiet, no words to say, and they all slump into the seats around the living room. Grace must have lit the fire while they were out and it casts shadows dancing around the room. Allison disappears for a few minutes, presumably leaving to her room, but she returns quickly with her laptop in her hands. He thinks it's odd how, out of all of them, only Vanya and Allison seem to actually use phones or laptops. It's an odd thought, and he eyes her laptop as she settles back down and types away. 

"What are you doing?" Luther asks, peering over at Allison who spares him a brief glance.

"We can still do research," she says softly. "We ought to know what Klaus went through."

Diego can't argue with that, but he rings his hands and snorts softly. "You think he's gonna have PTSD or something?" He asks it in a joking tone because he doesn't want to imagine that. Allison stares at him.

"It was a horrific war, Diego," she says, "and we don't know how long he's been there for."

Diego presses his lips together and looks away. Allison returns to her laptop, typing away, and then she sets it on the coffee table and both Diego and Vanya make their way over and peer at the screen. She's scrolling through search results of documentaries and Wikipedia pages, but eventually she finds a link leading to raw footage from a documentary specifically on the Brigade Klaus was in. She clicks on it and makes it full screen and turns up the volume. It opens up with some old music and the claim that it was by the Army Pictorial Centre. It flickers and then fades into real footage, and Diego tenses. He wonders when this was for Klaus. What if it was some kind of fucked-up, time-travel live stream, and as they watch it it's happening for Klaus. As helicopters fly over a grainy sky, Klaus is sitting inside one at that moment, looking at the ground far below him. 

It records soldiers piling into planes ands helicopters, records them wading through chest-high water with their guns held up above their heads. He catches Klaus there, lips pressed together in a tight line and knuckles white on his rifle, eyes trained on the murky water as he follows the line of soldiers through it. His helmet has the words _war is hell_ written across it, and so does another soldier. It records soldiers crouching in a jungle, pushing branches and tall grass out of their way, speaking to one another in hushed whispers that the audio doesn't catch. It catches soldiers hiding behind a crumbling wall, crouching, peering out with their rifles held tightly in their hands. Diego watches as Klaus stands in a line, holding ammunition for a heavy gun that shakes the ground with each shot and the bang echoes loud enough to make Diego cringe. Klaus had never liked loud noises. He feeds the shell in his hand into the gun and steps away as another soldier shoots it, and he returns to the beginning, taking another shell and returning into the line. It catches him in the back of a truck, hands resting on his gun and eyes far away before another soldier taps him on the knee.

It catches Klaus, pale faced and panting. One of his hands clutch his rifle, the other fisting a soldier's shirt as he and another soldier drag the injured one across the ground and behind a wall. It catches a large camp surrounded by trees, tents set up, soldiers scrubbing their uniforms in wooden troughs, and it shows Klaus with a cigarette dangling from his lips as he cuts someone's hair and laughs. The man gets up, using a hand mirror to look at his surprisingly clean haircut, and Klaus wipes down the place he was sitting before gesturing for another soldier to sit down. It shows Klaus talking to Vietnamese children with animated gestures and a large smile, and it shows Klaus in the background while soldiers hold a man's wrists behind his back and tie them together. Klaus' eyes never land on the man and he shifts uncomfortably, fingers shaking over his gun.

It shows Klaus laughing and wandering a camp, eating something. He's sitting near the camera and his eyes flick to something out of view, lighting up. Someone says something to him and he laughs, lips moving to form the words  _shut up, Katz,_ before a brunette with sun kissed skin sits down and slaps a hand on Klaus' shoulder with a grin. It shows Klaus with a scarf wrapped around his nose and eyes distant as he weaves between bodies on the floor. It shows soldiers falling and never getting back up again, it shows villages going up in flames and soldiers shooting civilians and soldiers running through streets and pulling injured friends to safety, and it shows children running and crying, children dead, soldiers sitting in ditches and covered in dirt, eyes glossy and haunted, and it shows Klaus gently scrubbing dirt off an emaciated teenager's legs and not so subtly scrubbing at his eyes.

It shows soldiers taking things off bodies covered in flies and terrified people holding their hands up above their heads in the face of rifles and pistols, soldiers manhandling people in blindfolds, soldiers keeping low as they run with a stretcher held between the four of them, blurry silhouettes running against blazing fires and a soldier crying in pain as he's lifted onto a stretcher, soldiers crawling over rocks, filling sandbags, laughing together and arguing seriously.

It shows too much, and they're simply watching it through a screen and shitty camera quality. Allison closes her laptop. No one says anything. There's nothing to say. Diego can't imagine Klaus in there. 

Five appears in the living room with a flash of blue. He'd been in his bedroom for hours and his hair's messy. "I've figured it out," he says, pacing the living room. Everyone sits up, startled, and turns to him with hopeful expressions. "I'll go in and find him, hopefully when they're... not fighting. If I'm not back in an hour, assume the worst."

"And what do you mean by that?" Luther asks, eyebrows raised. Five rolls his eyes.

"An hour here might be a week or months there. I won't be pressed for time, so if it's that long here, I'm either stuck there or dead." He shrugs nonchalantly, glancing away.

"Maybe there's another way we can do this," Vanya blurts, a hand over her mouth. Everyone turns to her.

Five shakes his head. "I doubt so. I can't get my hands on a briefcase from the Commission other than the one Klaus might have."

"You saw Klaus," Diego states, gobsmacked. "You saw him in those - those documentaries! We can't leave Klaus in that; Klaus can't deal with that." He throws his hands up, running them through his hair. Vanya looks down at her feet.

"I just - I don't want to lose two of my brothers, Diego," she defends, shaking her head and looking to Five, who looks unimpressed.

"It's unlikely Klaus is going to make his way back here unless you want him to live through the entire war or get badly hurt enough that he gets discharged, and he comes back here at eighty years old." His eyes roam over everyone and he folds his arms across his chest. "So do you want me to go get him or not?"

Allison shifts on the spot, glancing at everyone before she nods. Luther follows her lead and Diego's already nodding. He can't possibly entertain the idea of leaving Klaus in a bloody war forever.

"Be safe," Luther says seriously. "If you need more time, we can wait."

Five's quiet for a moment before shifting on the spot. "I should only be a few seconds. I'm going to go in, get him, and come back as quickly as possible," he states, and his hands glow blue and devour him, and he's gone, leaving them all to stare at the empty spot he was previously standing in. No one says anything, watching and expecting Five to suddenly reappear any second, but it doesn't happen immediately. 

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Vanya asks no one in particular, quietly.

"They will." Luther sounds so sure and confident, lifting his chin up. "Any second now." 

They all stare. Diego thinks back to the pictures and footage they saw, tries to imagine Klaus joining the army, Klaus running along the front lines with a rifle in his hands, Klaus following behind a tank.

Diego slumps back into the seat behind him. Luther sits back down on the couch and Allison taps her foot anxiously, lips pressed together. The academy seems too quiet and Diego can't wrap his mind around the fact that no one noticed Klaus was missing. He hadn't noticed, not even in the few days where he'd pressed for them to act like a family. 

Diego feels sick with himself, but he can't focus on that for now because the air crackles with electricity and then it splits open, a whirling, dark void strong enough to put the fire out. Three forms tumble out of it, the portal spitting them out. Five falls out first with a hard thud, rolling slightly on the ground, eyes closed and unconscious. Klaus' falls out in a tumble of long, skinny limbs, slightly sunburnt, caked with dirt and ash and blood. He gasps, hitting the floor hard and dazed, eyes wild and watery. A rifle clatters to the ground beside him. And finally, out tumbles another soldier with mousy brown hair, tan skin, and blood spilling from his thigh. He moans as he hits the floor and doesn't move save to clutch his wounded leg, hissing between his teeth. 

"Klaus," Diego breathes, but their brother doesn't even look at any of them. His fingernails scrape the marble floor, leaving red streaks across the surface, and then he turns to the unknown soldier Five dragged out with them. 

"Dave," he mutters, moving stiffly as he crawls towards the soldier, "Dave, Dave, hey, hey, look at me, I'm here, you're fine," he rambles, hands flying to his thigh and applying pressure. 

Vanya hurries to Five's side, lifting him up slightly. "He's just unconscious," she reports unsteadily, then turns to Klaus. No one knows what to say, again, and they can only watch as Klaus seems oblivious to his surroundings, mumbling to the man on the floor and trying to staunch the flow of blood with his hands. 

Allison leaves the room, whispering something about finding Grace, and Diego inches closer to Klaus. "Hey, Klaus," he says softly, crouching beside him and reaching a hand out to rest on Klaus' shoulder.

A fist greets his face and the shock sends him falling backwards. There's a scuffle beside him and he blinks open his eyes to see an old rifle pointed between his eyes, held in Klaus' blood slick, shaky hands. Klaus' eyes blow wide on his face and he moves his gun aside. "Di - Diego?" He asks, voice rough and confused. His eyes flit around the room, landing on Luther, Five, Vanya, the soldier, and Allison approaching with Grace. 

Diego holds his hands up in defence, eyes wide at Klaus' reaction. "Yeah, Klaus. It's us - it's me. You're home," he tells him, and slowly he sits up, scooting back a bit. Klaus blinks rapidly, his chest rising and falling rapidly, breath wheezing in his throat. Then he looks at Grace and he gently sets his gun on the ground, turning the soldier's arm up and around his shoulders and coaxes him onto his feet.

"Mom," he splutters, "mom, you need to help him, he needs help, the medics couldn't come."

Grace smiles gently at them, red lips framing her pearly teeth, and she doesn't question it. "Of course, dear," she says, and then she's helping Klaus haul the soldier out of the room, leaving a trail of dirt and blood behind them. Diego watches their backs disappear towards the infirmary and he slowly gets to his feet, looking over them all. Allison's standing to the side, watching the door, and Luther's made his way to Five and Vanya. 

Diego lets out a heavy breath. "I...didn't expect that," he mutters, and he raises a hand to rub his cheek. Klaus' punch had been surprisingly strong when he looked like he'd lost weight. 

"I'll bring Five to the infirmary as well," Luther offers after a moment of awkward silence, and he slides one arm under his knees, the other bracing his back. He leads the way to the infirmary, the others following awkwardly after him.

"At least he's alive," says Vanya, and Diego snorts. He looked half dead, even now as they see him standing by the soldier on a bed, clutching his hand as Grace works quickly and cleanly. His eyes are wide and water, whole body shaking like a leaf. His cheeks are a little hollow, his collar bones sharp beneath his jacket, and he smells like mud and ash and gunpowder. He turns when the others come in and he still looks distant, too, but he eyes Five. 

"I'm back," he says, and he eyes them all. "I'm back."

Luther nods. "Five went to get you," he informs, laying the thirteen, going on fifty-nine year old on the second bed in the infirmary. 

Klaus blinks slowly, obviously struggling to process everything. He's still breathing heavily and his eyes look like they hold years worth of knowledge and experience and horror. He turns back to the soldier and squeezes his dirty hand. "You're alright," he murmurs, "we're alright." 

The soldier opens his glossy eyes, looking around the room. Klaus leans forwards and taps his cheek, a weak smile on his lips. "Rest. You're safe. Get some rest." 

It seems to be enough and the soldier's eyes slide shut. Klaus thumb brushes along his cheekbone and the dirt caked onto his skin and then he leans his forehead against their hands and closes his eyes. The room echoes with the sounds of Grace's heels and the slightly unsteady heart monitor, and Diego can't find any words to say to his brother when tears slip out of his eyes, following the only clean tracks on his cheeks. 

Diego thinks it's going to take a lot longer for them to be able to act like a normal family. He tries to imagine Klaus in a war and although he can't, he can see it in him now. The weight on his shoulders, the heaviness to him, and he can only imagine how long Klaus was gone for. Too long, he thinks, because none of them even noticed. 

Diego swallows dryly and closes his eyes. Avoiding the apocalypse seems like the easy part. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, I really wanted to make Dave dead. That sounds horrible but I wanted the angst of it all, but if I end up making this a longer serious or whatever, I want Dave to be there, y'know, so he's alive. Or maybe I'll remake it and kill him again who knows honestly. Would y’all be interested in more of this idea?
> 
> Also I'm so sorry for that mile long authors note which is entirely me just ranting about time travel, but seriously, fuck time travel. I'd be a grumpy old man too if I had the power of something so confusing.


End file.
